Toilets

South Central Railway to provide bio-toilets on trains

Hyderabad: The South Central Railway (SCR) plans to procure 200 more eco-friendly bio-toilets to provide the facility on more trains in the next few months. The decision was taken after successful trial of 48 bio-toilets fitted to the 17 coaches being run on Hyderabad-Mumbai Hussain Sagar Express and Kacheguda-Bangalore Express.

Bio-toilets were developed jointly by Railway Research and Standard Organisation (RDSO) and Defence Research Development Establishment (DRDE) for use in Indian Railways and are currently under trial in many of the zonal railways.

SCR, which has its headquarters in Hyderabad, took a lead in the trial and provided the facility in two trains.

The conventional toilets in the trains, by allowing human waste to fall on the tracks, cause unhygienic conditions and corrosion to track and coach fittings endangering the safety. Passengers use toilets while trains are at platforms and the track get scattered with human excreta creating unpleasant situation for passengers on the platforms, said a statement from SCR on Friday....more    

UP: 13-year-old helps bring public toilets to his village

Khamhariya Damuan: A 13-year-old is acting as a catalyst of change not just for his home, but for the entire village community in Uttar Pradesh. Omkar Dubey took up the issue of sanitation forcing his village heads to set up public toilets. More than 70 per cent Indian homes have no access to a toilet. India has more cellphones than toilets. More than half a million children in India die...  

Toilets to boost self confidence among women: Ramesh

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said providing toilet to women in the country will instill a sense of confidence, self respect and security among them. It is shameful that 60 per cent of women in the country still defecate in open and there was a shortage of toilets in the country, he said. ...  

Now, a smartphone-controlled toilet launched; features hands-free flushing, speakers and more

The technology has gone too far that today users can conveniently control their TVs, music systems and many other devices with a smartphone. And now you can add one more thing - toilet - to the list of devices controlled using a smartphone, thanks to Japanese technology. ...  

No toilet, no bride, says Jairam Ramesh

Kota: Days after he kicked up a row by stating that there are more temples than toilets in India, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday urged women not to get married into families which do not have toilets in their homes. "Don't get married in a house where there is no toilet," the Rural Development and Water and Sanitation Minister said while addressing locals, majority of whom were women, at...  

FTN: Are universal toilets more important than temples?

Sagarika Ghose: Yes we are focusing tonight on temples and toilets. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said "Mandir se bhi zyada pavitra hai shauchalaya". Even purer than a temple is a toilet, is he insulting Hindu sentiment or making a strong argument to challenge the Indian mentality on toilets? Remember 626 million Indians still defecate in the open. We're asking are universal modern toilets much more important than temples....  

Nirvana in the loo

Bloody Mary |  Sagarika Ghose

Reforms are as much about toilets as they are about FDI Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's statement that a nation's salvation lies in more ...

Lawyer moves court against Jairam's toilet remark

Lucknow: A lawyer has moved a court here seeking a direction for lodging an FIR against Union minister Jairam Ramesh over his comment that there were more temples in the country than toilets. The court on Tuesday fixed October 12 as the next date of hearing on the plea. Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Upadhay also called for a report from local Alambag police station regarding the plea. The lawyer, Yaduvansh...  

FTN: Are universal toilets more important than temples?

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that toilets are more pure and holy than temples. ...

FTN: Jairam Ramesh says toilets are more pure and holy than temples: Are universal toilets more important than temples?

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh says toilets are more pure and holy than temples. Tonight at 10, CNN-IBN Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose discusses with a panel of experts whether universal toilets are more important than temples. You can ask a question to our panelists here or tweet us @face_the_nation. 

Jairam alone can explain his temple vs toilet remark: Congress

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday stirred a controversy for reportedly comparing toilets to temples. Saying that toilets were far more important than temples, he proceeded to comment upon the poor hygiene levels in the latter. While the BJP has slammed Ramesh, the Congress too has distanced itself from the comments. ...

BJP lashes out at Jairam for remarks on temples

New Delhi: Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has stirred a controversy for comparing toilets to temples. Ramesh said that toilets are more important that the temples in our country also commenting on poor hygiene levels in the latter. While the BJP lashed out at Ramesh, the Congress has distanced itself from the comments. Congress, which has gone into an overdrive defending Robert Vadra, stated that it is best to leave...  

HC to BBMP: Raze toilets on pavements

Bangalore: The High Court on Thursday directed the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to demolish illegal toilets constructed on the footpath of 3rd Cross, Sudhamanagar (ward 118) near Lalbagh saying footpaths were meant for pedestrians and not for toilets and transformers. During the hearing of a petition filed by resident Sunita Devi, in front of whose house the toilets have come up, Justice Ram Mohan Reddy said, How many toilets have...  

Indian firm gets Gates Foundation grant for eToilet

Seattle: An Indian firm has won a grant of more than $450,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to make public toilets more accessible to the urban poor via the eco-friendly and hygienic "eToilet". India's Eram Scientific Solutions Private Limited was awarded the grant as part of the foundation's second round of Reinvent the Toilet Challenge grants totalling nearly $3.4 million. Foundation Co-chair Bill Gates announced the grants on...  

Cut defence expenditure to fund bio-toilets: Ramesh

New Delhi: Defence Minister AK Antony on Thursday outrightly rejected Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's pitch for a share from the national security allocation for social development programmes. "Money provided in the budget for the Defence is for national security," Antony said promising at the same time all necessary support to Rural Development Ministry by providing it technology from his ministry. Ramesh had earlier said that the total amount of...  

Indian Railway world's biggest open toilet: Ramesh

New Delhi: Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has called the railway the world's biggest open toilet. He was making a pitch for greater funding for bio-toilets. "We are the world's capital for open defacations. 60 per cent of all open defacations in the world are in India. This is a matter of great shame," Ramesh said. "The second dimension of the sanitation problems in India is the Railway, which is...  

India is world's capital for open defecation: Ramesh

New Delhi: Terming India as world's capital for open defecation, Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that 100,000 "bio-toilets" will be installed in about 300 backward gram panchayats in the next two years at a cost of Rs 150 crore. "We are the world's capital for open defecation. It is a matter of shame, anguish, sorrow, anger," Ramesh said, noting over 60 percent of all open...  

'Toilet trouble' at Olympic Games Village

London: Transport and security woes came visiting the London Olympics organisers in ample measure ahead of the greatest sporting show on earth, forcing the athletes to experience a different kind of trouble at the Games Village in London. Sharing of a toilet among four sportspersons, and sometimes even by six athletes, is causing strain and forcing some of them to alter their morning schedules so as to manage essential routines....  

'Toilets are being used for storing food grain'

Chandigarh: Decrying the lack of proper sanitation facilities, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said toilets built over the last 10 years across the country are being used for storing food grain. "In last 10 years, toilets have been built (across the country)...But toilets are not being used for the purpose for which they had been built. They are being used for storing food grain...they have been turned into...  

DRDO licencing eco-toilets to private companies

Dhamra: Commercialising the use of its "unique" Bio-Digester technology, which turns human waste into biogas and odourless compost, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is now licencing private companies to build eco-toilets all over the country. "As part of a FICCI interface programme, we are commercialising the technology so that bio-toilets can reach every nook and corner of the country. It is a unique technology not available anywhere else...